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I clear my throat. "I might have a flask or two of something strong to drink. Somewhere. Should we get that?" I gesture at my station. "A Homeworld blend—"
"It's fine," Sentorr says, smoothing a hand over Zoey's brow and brushing her hair back from her face. "Just give her a moment." I've never seen the sour navigator look so very tender as he gazes at his mate, comforting her.
A hand touches mine. At first, I think my circuits are jumping and I've mistaken it, but when I look down, Sophie's fingers brush against my own. I clasp her hand, my chest warming at the touch.
She needed me.
"I'm okay," Zoey manages between hiccups. She sits up, wiping her palms over her face like a child, and then sniffs hard. Sentorr pulls out a handkerchief and Zoey blows her nose noisily into the square of plas-fabric. "I'm okay," she repeats again. "They're not dead. They're just…missing."
"No one said they were dead," Sentorr says gently, and when his mate tucks her head against his chest again, he shoots us all a glare, silently telling us not to disagree with him.
Zoey closes her eyes and takes a deep, shuddering breath. "Okay." She takes a second, clearly trying to compose herself, and then continues. "Sophie mentioned she hadn't had a comm from my brothers either, but she knew they were in the Slatra system. And I know they're not great communicators, so I wasn't too upset over that, but…" She takes another hiccupy breath, snuggled against Sentorr's chest. "I also know a guy that runs shipping lanes in V'tarr and I thought I'd check with him."
"V'tarr?" Iris asks, frowning. Her mate stands behind her, both hands on her shoulders. "What's that?"
"Planet in the Slatra system. V'tarr is also the capitol city of the planet," Tarekh explains.
"Your carinoux is rumored to be from a forested moon there," Kivian adds. "But no one's allowed in the Slatra system without the proper documents."
"Right." Zoey sniffs again. "So I sent a comm to my friend, asking if he'd seen the Little Sister's ship signature pull up in any of his traffic logs. I figured they'd need to refuel somewhere, maybe get some supplies. If they were under a different name, I could still find them by the ship's signature. So I sent a comm to Javeri, not expecting to hear back for a while. He was there, though, and…" Her lip wobbles and her voice trails off.
My hand squeezes, and then Sophie steps forward, her voice gentle. "Her friend said that the Little Sister had been pulled in as salvage some days ago. The ship was empty. Abandoned."
Silence fills the hangar.
"What about the escape pods?" Cat asks quickly.
"All intact," Zoey chokes out.
"It just means that they met with someone else," Sophie volunteers. "Maybe the Sister had engine trouble and they teamed up with someone else. Answers are bound to come in."
Zoey nods jerkily against Sentorr's chest. "It's just…it'd kill them for the Sister to sit in a scrap yard, abandoned." She swipes at her cheeks again. "They love that ship. They wouldn't abandon her."
"I'm sure they had a reason," Sophie says. Her hand is so tight in mine. "We just don't know what it was."
Kivian clears his throat, glancing down at the daughter in his arms. He pulls a bit of sparkly sleeve out of the baby's mouth and looks over at Fran, who nods, as if she knows what he's going to say before he says it. "Looks like we're going to have to cut our visit short, then," he says. "We'll go retrieve the Sister from V'tarr and see if we can find out what happened."
It makes sense. "I understand. Let me know if I can help in any way."
Kivian grins at me. "You can start by falsifying our records so we have clearance to the Slatra system."
I nod. "I'm sure I can manage something. Give me a few hours." I'll have to check the flight records of the scrapped ships floating in orbit around my asteroid, see if any of them have access, and then it's just a matter of tweaking the flight records and attaching them to the Jabberwock…normally it'd take days, but I know they won't want to stay that long.
So I'll just make it work in less time.
"How much?" Kivian asks.
"Don't worry about it," I say gruffly. "Use those credits for fuel if you must. And you're free to bring the Sister back here to dock until you find out what's happened to the others."
It's unlike me to be charitable, even in the face of a crisis. Kivian looks surprised at my suggestion, but his gaze falls to where Sophie's tightly holding my hand, and then he nods. He gets it. Before he met Fran, he was a reckless idiot. Now…well, he's a slightly less reckless idiot with a mate and a baby. I imagine there are jobs even Kivian turns down so he won't put his mate in danger.
